Dealing with multiple values in the contexts of hybridity

Irrespective of its significant impact on governing and organizing societal activities, the valuation of economic and social action is a quagmire. It depends upon the perspective we take on social and economic activities. What is valuable is influenced by our notion of what we consider worthy in our lives (Stark, 2009). Economic calculus plays a role here, but at the same time value recognition escapes precise financial measurements. Research on hybridity and hybrid organizations have started to direct attention to the impacts of hybridity on the dissonance of value creation, i.e. how to understand hybrid organizations and systems that should be able to provide distinct forms of value simultaneously (Vakkuri and Johanson 2020). The aim of this paper is to create a conceptual model for dealing with multiple values in hybrid settings. We are interested in both the multiplicity of value constellations as such, as well as the valorization, processes and conditions for creating value in the following hybrid settings: state-owned enterprises (SOEs), public-private partnerships (PPPs), non-profit organizations (NPOs) and social enterprises (SEs). We argue that there is a lack of theoretical and empirical understanding of value creation in hybrid settings, and the ways in which the dissonant characteristics of value are conceptualized (Stark 2009; Jagd 2011), measured (Nicholls 2009), mixed (Vakkuri and Johanson 2020), created and captured (Mazzucato 2018), blended (Emerson 2003) and shared (Porter and Kramer 2012).
We study value creation in hybrid settings through three value creation mechanisms: mixing, compromising and legitimizing. This study is motivated by the observation that previous studies are associated with only the micro level of hybridity, i.e. hybrid organizations. The originality of our research approach lies in exploring forms of value creation that move beyond towards the meso and macro levels of hybridity discussing multiple values in more comprehensive policies and systems of society. Our argumentation is based on an inter-disciplinary analysis of prior research traditions and literature emphasizing hybridity and value creation. Informed by the approach, findings reveal that in different contexts of hybridity multiple values are involved in policy development. In terms of contribution to theory, this paper expands our understanding concerning the role of multiple values as well as the novel mixing mechanisms of value in hybrid settings. The paper also demonstrates that hybrid organisations can make compromises even when multiple values coexist, and when only the values of some actors predominate. However, it also shows that when only some values predominate, the opportunity provided by the multiplicity of values is lost and possible inefficiencies and problems may emerge. Furthermore, the research explores the strategies through which multiple values are legitimized in different hybrid settings.